Jose Abreu a historic, uncontroversial rookie of the year despite ‘advantages’

Jose Abreu is going to win the American League Rookie of the Year award today. This is to take nothing away from Dellin Betances or Matt Shoemaker, the other two finalists. Or from George Springer, Danny Santana, or Masahiro Tanaka, none of whom are even in the running. There is no drama here.

Twenty years ago, this would have been unfathomable. Rookies, regardless of their point of origin, had to struggle through the minor league system in the states before getting their shots. Sure, foreign-born players have won Rookie of the Year awards before on occasion. Dominicans like Raul Mondesi (1994) and Alfredo Griffin (1979) had done it. Fernando Valenzuela came out of Mexico in 1981. Even Cubans have won it in the past, first Tony Oliva (1964), then Jose Canseco (1986), and finally Jose Fernandez just last year. That all changed with Hideo Nomo, just the second Japanese player in the major leagues, and the first Japanese superstar.

Hideo Nomo signs with the Dodgers, February, 1995 (Getty Images).

That wasn't enough for some writers, who argued both then and later that the 26-year-old Nomo, who had already won a Rookie of the Year award in Japan, shouldn't be eligible for the award. Most of those arguments were jingoistic rants about how Nomo's professional experience gave him an unfair advantage over "our boys," though a few did also argue that to assert that Japan didn't have a major league was something of an insult. Perhaps because of the contentiousness of his eligibility, he barely edged the Braves' Chipper Jones in the voting by a tally of 118 to 104.

Soon, more international players made the transition. Cuban Livan Hernandez debuted in 1996 and came in second in the NL Rookie of the Year race in 1997. His brother Orlando came up the following year, as did Rolando Arrojo, who finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. Then Mariners Kazuhiro Sasaki and Ichiro Suzuki won it in back-to-back seasons in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Sasaki was 32 and Suzuki 27, and the same jingoistic arguments from 1995 raised their ugly heads. In all three cases, Nomo, Sasaki, and Suzuki won over a comparatively weak field, lending some credence to the idea that they were more polished than the typical domestically-prepared rookie.

Abreu should be just the fourth international player and the first Cuban to jump directly from his native leagues into a Rookie of the Year award, but he's hardly the first to make the impressive jump from international competition since then: Hideki Matsui, Shingo Takatsu, Akinori Otsuka, Alexei Ramirez, Yoenis Cespedes, Yu Darvish and of course Yasiel Puig have also reached the majors with very limited time in the minors to finish in the top three in their respective Rookie of the Year votes. It's a remarkable testament to the quality of those international leagues that so many stars are able to make the relatively seamless transition, as well as to the rapid diversification of baseball itself.

There are so many more elite international players on the horizon as well, who look poised to make the list of ROY winners far less exclusive. Rusney Castillo debuted in September for the Red Sox after a nominal appearance in the minor league playoffs. He seems to have a job locked up for next year and will be a top candidate to win the award. Yasmani Tomas, just 23, has tremendous power and is said to be major league-ready right now. Korean Jung-Ho Kang is a middle infielder who hit 38 homers last year in his native country, and he'll be made available in November, while Korea's best pitcher, Hyeon-jong Yang, will also make the transition.